


Safe Box

by GenuineSnoof



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Erik is a Sweetheart, Established Relationship, Humor, M/M, Poor Charles, Protective Erik, charles had a bad childhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 10:24:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10534545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GenuineSnoof/pseuds/GenuineSnoof
Summary: Some of Charles' bad memories are triggered by the smell of an old box.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in a sort of AU my friend and I like to play with where Charles and Erik live in the mansion with a chinchilla called Chives and some x-guinea pigs from another dimension in the garden. They only feature in one or two sentences, though.

The whimpering started suddenly. 

Erik frowned. He was in the kitchen with the door open, enjoying a warm spring breeze while he was chopping carrots for dinner. He was making his Awesomely Special Awesomagna, which always took all day to make since Erik refused to just BUY pasta. Had to be self made or not at all, that was his stand on lasagna. 

Frowning, Erik looked down at Chives, who was sitting against his foot, nibbling a little snack of carrot and paprika pieces and looked up as if he’d felt Erik’s gaze on him. His left ear twitched once, then his tail and he bumped his head against Erik’s leg before he resumed nibbling. He hadn’t been the one whimpering.

And as he realized that, Erik heard it again, louder this time, with intermittened sniffs; a sad, sad sound. His frown deepening, he carefully stepped away from Chives to look out the door at his little vegetable garden to check if one of the guinea pigs had got stuck in the cabbage again, but the garden was empty except for the vegetables happily growing in the sun.

There was a definite sob now and the sudden thought of “please go away”, whispered in a child’s voice. Erik flinched, startled, and saw that Chives lifted his head just a little with a confused squeak. Chives looked around the kitchen, looked at Erik and hopped over a particularly big piece of paprika to nudge Erik’s leg.

“You heard that, too, huh?” Erik said and scooped the chinchilla up to give him a reassuring schnugg. Chives nuzzled the side of his neck.

The whimpering continued, more crying now really. 

“We better go wake Charles,” Erik said, petting Chives. “That sounds like one bad nightmare, huh?”

It didn’t really, though, Erik thought, since Charles’ nightmares, when they got bad, tended to come with pictures and sounds and overall dark feelings and sometimes a weird feeling of being out in the pouring freezing rain when he lay beside him, but it was definitely Charles, of that Erik was sure now. 

Holding Chives against his chest and petting him, Erik abandoned his cooking and went to find Charles. He checked the living-room first, assuming Charles had fallen asleep on the couch – pretending to read the newspaper – but he wasn’t there nor in his study. 

“Charles?” Erik called out. He had been trying to carefully reach Charles with his mind, knowing Charles didn’t take well to sudden mental intrusions when he was dreaming, but to no avail. “Schnuppchen, where are you?”

The sobs stopped.

“Charles?” Erik repeated, concerned. “You all right?”

After a brief pause, Charles answered in Erik’s head. ‘Yes, course I am. What is it’ D’you need something?’

‘Where are you?’ Erik asked and put Chives on his shoulder. 

‘The closet. The big first floor closet. I’ll be right down.’

Erik didn’t wait and hurried up the stairs. “Hey,” he said when he saw Charles leaving the closet, about to close the door. He was pale and looked like Chives had that one time Pigxavier had startled him so bad with his telepathy he’d pooped on his snack. 

“Hey. Did you need something?” Charles asked, quickly averting his eyes. “Hello Schnuggball, had a nice snack, you? Hmm?” he said to Chives, when Chives hopped out of Erik’s arms onto his shoulder and nuzzled Charles’ face. 

“We heard you cry,” Erik said, sidehugging Charles. “What happened? Did you fall asleep in there?”

Even with Charles’ head bowed, Erik could see him blushing. “Sorry about that, I had no idea I was projecting…”

“Never mind that,” Erik said. “What happened?” Chives was in the way, so Erik picked him up and put him on top of Charles’ head so he could fully hug him. He gently rubbed Charles’ back. “You’re trembling.”

‘It’s nothing,’ Charles said in Erik’s head, burying his face against Erik’s chest. ‘I’m sorry I startled you. I just-‘

‘Stop apologizing and tell me what happened.’

‘I was about to.’

“Oh,” Erik said out loud and nudged Charles’ forehead with his nose. “Sorry. Please continue.”

Charles snorfled warmly against Erik’s neck. ‘I found an old box that smelled like the box I used to hide in as a kid when things got bad.’

“Aw Süssi,” Erik said, hugging Charles tighter. 

‘It’s not THAT box, obviously and it’s okay, I just got startled, I dunno. It smelled like it and then the door fell shut and it was dark and I just kinda … lost it for a moment, but then I heard you calling for me and it was okay again. Stupid.’

Erik sighed, let go of Charles a little and scooped Chives off Charles’ head to put him on the ground. Chives immediately leaned against Charles’ leg. “It’s NOT stupid,” Erik said and hugged Charles again, cupping the back of his head with one hand. “I’m sorry that happened, you should always feel safe here.” He gently pecked Charles’ temple.

Charles sniffed, hanging his head. “It’s not even the same box, it just smells the fucking same.” He sniffed again. “Sorry. Language.”

Erik laughed softly. “It's all right, Schneckchen, swear your little heart out.”

“Bloody fuckboxes,” Charles said without much energy, then frowned. “That makes them sound even worse.”

“I dunno, would that make them less scary?”

Confused, Charles looked up and met Erik’s gaze. Laughing, he shoved him lightly. “You… you. We wouldn’t fit in there, anyway,” he added after a moment’s thought and kissed Erik. “But thanks for the idea, that helped.”

Erik looked at him, thinking, then leaned his head forward so his forehead touched Charles’. “I have an idea that… might actually really help. It’s I have tried.”

“I’m fine, Erik, really, it-“

“No, no,” Erik cut him off, schnugging him tighter. “Just trust me. C’mon,” he took Charles’ hand and opened the closet door. When he was met with resistance, he let go off the doorknob and hugged Charles again. “It won’t hurt, it won’t be scary and it might help. Okay? Trust me.”

“It’s myself I don’t trust,” Charles said. “What if I project again?”

“Then I’ll hug you tighter,” Erik said and smiled.

Charles sighed slightly. “All right. Can’t resist that face. But we’re not… really gonna try and do it in the box, are we? I think that’d be weird. Maybe even harmful. Certainly somehow perv-“

“No,” Erik said. “Don’t worry, Schnuppchen, I won’t ravish you in your traumatic childhood memory box. Okay?”

Charles nodded. “Okay.” He gripped Erik’s hand tighter and Erik opened the door. 

“All right, which box is it?”

Charles pointed.

“You fit in one of those as a kid?” Erik asked, lifting his brows.

“With space left to move,” Charles nodded. “I could close the lid, too.”

Erik frowned and drew Charles against him, hugging him tight. “How long did you stay in there usually?”

“Dunno. Till I felt safe to come out. It wasn’t always safe, but… sometimes I had to go or something. Or I felt Raven getting out of my range, so I had to move to make her invisible again.”

“My poor Charles,” Erik said and kissed Charles’ cheek. “I sometimes wish I could hug tiny you.”

“Me too,” Charles said. “Wish I could hug tiny you and want you to hug tiny me.”

“Well. I can hug tiny now-you,” Erik said and petted Charles’ hair.

“Hm-mm. Git.”

 

Erik smiled and made a show out of bending down to kiss Charles’ temple. “All right, so and… this box smells like your box inside?”

Charles nodded. 

“Okay.” Erik disentangled himself from around Charles but kept holding his hand, as he dragged the box out from under the shelf where it stood, opened the lid and knelt down, dragging Charles down with him.

Charles whimpered slightly and closed his eyes. ‘You said it wouldn’t be scary, and now I feel silly,’ he thought.

“Shh,” Erik said and dragged Charles close against him. “I’m with you. Is it scary with me here? If it is, we’ll leave right away.”

It took Charles a moment to reply, “No. It’s not scary with you here.”

“Good.” Erik stroked Charles’ hair. “Look, Chives is here, too.”

Charles opened his eyes and indeed Chives sat on his left foot, absently nibbling at his trousers leg while looking at Charles. Charles petted him.

“Good old Chives.”

“We’re both here to keep you save from any bad memories,” Erik said and settled so he could fully hug Charles against his chest. “Can you still smell the box?”

“Yeah.”

 

“I tried this with certain sounds, remember? And you hugged me then and told me I was safe.”

“Oh,” Charles said. “Yeah.”

“Well, why wouldn’t it work with smells.”

Charles smiled, leaning his head back against Erik’s chest. “Thanks, love.”

“It’s what I’m here for,” Erik said. “That and for moving the walls an inch at a time with your butt.”

Charles giggled. “That sounds… that’s the WORST image. You think the house is gonna collapse on us in the middle of woohoo some day?”

“I thought that was the goal.”

“It certainly is now,” Charles said and turned his head so he could kiss Erik properly. “I love you. You’re the best.”

“I aim to please,” Erik said and kissed Charles back. “You and me both,” he added and grinned.

Charles turned slightly so he could curl up in Erik’s arms and gently nuzzle his throat. “Can we just… stay here a bit and talk dirty and then move to the bedroom and do dirty? Please?”

“If you think that’d help.”

“I think so,” Charles said.

“Then that’s what we’ll do, Hasenpfote,” Erik said and kissed him again. “You start.” 

THE END


End file.
